Football Manager 25 has been cancelled just one month before its expected release date. Sports games are some of the biggest video games out there. In 2024, eight of the top 20 best selling games of the year in the United States were sports games which is pretty much all of the new big annualized sports releases. NHL was the only major sports release that wasn’t in there, which isn’t totally surprising. However, it clearly shows that gamers love their sports. It’s an easy cash cow and one that allows publishers to generate heaps of additional revenue as they can charge for extra players, randomized packs, and more.
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While EA and 2K largely corner the market on the sports genre, there are a few other teams that operate inside of it. Sony San Diego Studio makes the MLB games and Sports Interactive makes the more niche, but well-liked Football Manager games. It’s a more in-depth experience than something like FIFA/EA’s FC games as you build and control everything to do with your team, down to the most minute details. It’s a unique experience and one that soccer fans have come to appreciate. Football Manager 24 has an 84 on Metacritic and a ‘very positive’ status for user reviews on Steam, one of the most popular platforms for the series.
Football Manager 25 Cancelled Ahead of March 2025 Release
With all of that said, Football Manager 25 has had a rough go. The game was due out last fall, the typical window for the series to release in. Unfortunately, it wasn’t quite ready and SEGA and Sports Interactive opted to delay Football Manager 25 to March 2025 with a gameplay reveal in January. It’s now February and that gameplay reveal never came… and it never will. SEGA and Sports Interactive have opted to completely cancel Football Manager 25 just one month before its release. The companies released a lengthy statement about the matter.
Sports Interactive apologized for disappointing fans and noted that it simply wasn’t able to get the game in a place that it felt would satisfy players. While the team foresees a path to get it there, the time it would take to do so would be far too late in the season for soccer fans.
“Due to a variety of challenges that we’ve been open about to date, and many more unforeseen, we currently haven’t achieved what we set out to do in enough areas of the game, despite the phenomenal efforts of our team,” said Sports Interactive in a statement. “Each decision to delay the release was made with the aim of getting the game closer to the desired level but, as we approached critical milestones at the turn of the year, it became unmistakably clear that we would not achieve the standard required, even with the adjusted timeline.
“Whilst many areas of the game have hit our targets, the overarching player experience and interface is not where we need it to be. As extensive evaluation has demonstrated, including consumer playtesting, we have clear validation for the new direction of the game and are getting close – however, we’re too far away from the standards you deserve.”
As a result, the studio made the painful decision to cancel Football Manager 25 entirely in favor of focusing on Football Manager 26.
“We could have pressed on, released FM25 in its current state, and fixed things down the line – but that’s not the right thing to do,” the studio continued. “We were also unwilling to go beyond a March release as it would be too late in the football season to expect players to then buy another game later in the year. Through the cancellation, every effort is now focused on ensuring that our next release achieves our goal and hits the quality level we all expect. We will update you on how we are progressing with that as soon as we are able to do so.”
It’s a rare sign of restraint from a video game studio, particularly a sports-centric one. A number of sports studios have been criticized for releasing rushed, buggy games that feel like a shell of the franchise they once loved. The closest thing this situation can be compared to is when EA canceled a game known as NBA Elite 11.
The game had copies printed, shipped out, and was even played by some reviewers, but was canceled just a week before it was set to hit shelves. A demo was released prior to this and was filled with bugs, leading fans to mock the game and grow concerned about its quality. Copies of it still exist in the wild, but they are valued at extremely high price. Football Manager 25 didn’t make it quite that far, though, so its likely no one will ever play it.
